I have been collaborating a bit with Universal on the project and now I am allowed to share some of the information with you:

Stereo and Mono mixes of the Album plus the singles, and the material already iussed in VU & Another View will go in Cd 1 and 2.
No alternate take of "Sister Ray" i am afraid , but there are fantastic surprises for the fans: the alternate take of "I Heard Her Call My Name" and the long time rumored "Beginning to See the Light" recorded May 29, 1968 with Cale at fuzzy bass!! Those alone are exciting enough to warrant the set.

The Gift will have some special "treatment" on the issue with Vocal and Instrumental versions.

Cd #3 will be "Live at The Gimnasium April 30, 1967" with a previously unreleased (not in the bootleg) "The Gift", similar tempo than the studio version but live!!!

As always thanks to Levenson and Mercuri for the great job done to keep the VU catalog alive and make these gems finally available

Great news but I have a serious question...Disc 2 looks like it's going to follow the pattern of its predecessor deluxe set as being the 'mono' disc. Given that we now know that only half of WL/WH was given a dedicated mono mix (i.e. Side 1), are there plans to just issue those tracks rather than the whole shebang with fold-down mixes too? It would be very cheeky - and insulting - if Universal did the latter IMHO. Can you confirm either way?

If it's the former, that give us all more room to speculate what might be on Disc 2...great to hear that those long-rumoured outtakes are finaly getting issued!

One last nerdy question..we all know that there's an alternate live 'Guess..' which has the same acoustics (albeit in a rough mix) as the official one on PSAS. It's been bootlegged for years (cf 'And So On' for example). Any chance it and the set it's from could surface?

Have to admit I'm more excited by this than the VU&N set as so little of this era is documented live...

"If anyone had a heart
They wouldn't turn around & break it
And if anyone played a part
They wouldn't turn around & fake it"
Lou Reed, 'Sweet Jane', 1970

thanks for sharing what information you can with us. Glad to hear about Beginning to See the Light and I Heard Her Call My Name being released at last. Having an instrumental version of The Gift on CD always makes sense to me as I like make one myself for any listening copy of the WLWH CD.

The new live version of The Gift is intriguing, as this has never come to light before. Is it from the same set as The Gymnasium which we are all familiar with now and will the-known-to-exist Walk And Talk It be included?

I'm not clear ? when you say no Sister Ray outtake ? does that mean there are NO outtakes from WLWH at all? You seem to say that I Heard Her Call My Name is a different take ? or is it the alternative (pre-Lou) mix?

News that only Side 1 of the album was a true mono mix and Side 2 is not is new for me. Can you pls elaborate for me?

I expect the Singles to be same as the Vinly re-issues by Sundazed (the single mix for "I Heard Her call My Name" is different than in the mono/stereo albums)

We all know that there should be a different "Gymnasium tape" than the one circulating. Cale used it when braodcasting "Guess" for the fisrt time in the 70´s... that´s all I know. It sounds more like a hand mike recording not a soundboard, so probbaly this is the reason this was not used. I doubt this tape is with Universal, but this is juts my opnion.

Iaredatsum

The new "The Gift" as far as I know, was the final number that night. "Walk and talk It" was probbaly included in the other Gymnasium tape, but only Cale knows
Outtakes: I do not know. Never heard of any outtakkes appart from "I Heard Her Call My Name" that is listed as "alternate take" and as per below prossibly "Here She Comes now"(??)

Was me who a few years ago shared here in the Forum the info of the Studio Recordings. I got the info from the book "The MGM Labels. A Discopgraphy. Vol 2 1961-1982"

NYC September 21, 1967
103545 I Heard her Call My Name
103546 Here She Comes Now (NA: used for the single)

As per the book there is just one "I Heard Her Call My Name" but two "Here She Comes Now". And there is no info for 103538 (should be done same day Sept 25).

We, VU fans, are NEVER satisfied, but I think step by step we are getting a lot of unrelesaed stuff, lovely packed and produced. Just having the chace to listen to "Beginning To See The Light" with Cale should be a milestone on VU history, it is at least for me.

Intrumental "The Gift", as you iaredatsum, i did my own homemade version from the MFSL Cd. Sure this will be better!

didn't someone suggest a while back that maybe that "original" version of Guess (as broadcast by Cale in June 79) was actually a hand mic recording of the VU appearance on "Upbeat"?

Tony Conrad has said that he (audio) taped that TV appearance and it would make sense that he then gave a copy to Cale, who maybe then misdated it etc etc

Thoughts?

alfredovu wrote:Jimjim

We all know that there should be a different "Gymnasium tape" than the one circulating. Cale used it when braodcasting "Guess" for the fisrt time in the 70´s... that´s all I know. It sounds more like a hand mike recording not a soundboard, so probbaly this is the reason this was not used. I doubt this tape is with Universal, but this is juts my opnion.

alfredovu wrote:Outtakes: I do not know. Never heard of any outtakkes appart from "I Heard Her Call My Name" that is listed as "alternate take" and as per below prossibly "Here She Comes now"(??)

Was me who a few years ago shared here in the Forum the info of the Studio Recordings. I got the info from the book "The MGM Labels. A Discopgraphy. Vol 2 1961-1982"

NYC September 21, 1967
103545 I Heard her Call My Name
103546 Here She Comes Now (NA: used for the single)

As per the book there is just one "I Heard Her Call My Name" but two "Here She Comes Now". And there is no info for 103538 (should be done same day Sept 25).

We, VU fans, are NEVER satisfied, but I think step by step we are getting a lot of unrelesaed stuff, lovely packed and produced. Just having the chace to listen to "Beginning To See The Light" with Cale should be a milestone on VU history, it is at least for me.

Alfredo, thanks for clearing things up. I clearly dreamt about other outtakes , except the two versions Here She Comes Now. On that score (HSCN). I wonder about the one that says used for single - as the one in the Sundazed singles box sounded the same as the one on the album, so hopefully we will hear a new version on the box.

I'm very much looking forward to this set. The legendary Cale version of BTSTL is a real bonus and as the last Cale track he made with them, could be a very revealing glimpse of that crucial point in their history. And to have a great sounding version of the wonderful pre-Lou/single mix(?) of I Heard Her Call My Name will be doubly fantastic. Even to hear a well remastered version of the whole stereo album to the standard that they achieved with the VU&N set really excites me.

never heard that before, but make sense, a lot of sense to me. Conrad told me years ago that he had the tape (reel-to-reel) of the Upbeat TV show (not with him at that time) and he had not listen to it in a long time so wasn´t sure if was music or just an interview.

Iaredatsum

For this ears the verison of "I Heard Her Call My Name" on the Sundazed single box is a different mix than the one on the LP/CDs, don´t you think so?

My involvement? same as in the VU&Nico 45 Deluxe and the Sundazed 5Lp Box set: Photo research. I would rather prefer to be involved in the Tape Research, but the position was already booked!

Hi Alfredo
This is great news. It is a real shame that the other Gymnasium tape isn't included. There must be another one, because apart from the other version of Guess Im Falling In Love, Booker T must be from the other tape, and of course Walk and Talk it.

Are you able to share with us the track listing for the 3rd CD - the Gymnasium set? Is it just what was on the bootleg LP plus the Gift?

alfredovu wrote:For this ears the verison of "I Heard Her Call My Name" on the Sundazed single box is a different mix than the one on the LP/CDs, don´t you think so?

My involvement? same as in the VU&Nico 45 Deluxe and the Sundazed 5Lp Box set: Photo research. I would rather prefer to be involved in the Tape Research, but the position was already booked!

re. I Heard Her Call My Name. Yes, that is what I meant. It is surely the 'lost' mix before Lou Reed turned up his guitar. I didn't know that was going to be the one on the single until I heard it in the Sundazed set. I presumed this is the one featured on the new CD but I'm hoping for a better quality sound than the Sundazed single. I also wonder whether it exists as stereo.

Look forward to seeing your contribution to the set. And hopefully a tape researcher role can be found for you in the near future!